


I Won't Let You Die Like This

by LibertyKingdom



Category: The Prince of Egypt (1998)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-22
Updated: 2017-01-22
Packaged: 2018-09-19 07:25:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9425621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LibertyKingdom/pseuds/LibertyKingdom
Summary: This is based on a drabble written for my Prince of Egypt Blog. Take this as a warning: the story will contain an attack, blood, and death. Proceed with caution.





	

The ebony-haired woman could usually hold her own against any threats that presented themselves. With the help of Moses and his guiding-staff, the two had become a formidable force similar to that of an EF5 tornado. They had earned a reputation for fiercely protecting what was theirs. So, not too many thieves even considered their flock as a target. However, this day would prove to be one of the rare occasions when plaguing hunger-pangs and greed would lead asinine men into Midian with the allure of freely obtained food and therefore, satisfaction. They set their eyes upon the well-tended flock like vultures circling their next meal, knowing their desires would soon be pacified.

While Moses had taken his staff and wandered off to bring back a straying little lamb, who was more like a member of the family than a pet, Tzipporah had stayed behind to tend to the main flock. There were wolves and other animals who would, if given the opportunity, make quick work of the little ball of wool. Moses insisted that he could take care of these terrible threats alone. (and truth be told she didn't mind letting Moses handle them).

How were they to know that the true danger was lurking about the well, waiting for the right moment to strike out? Two men, whose clothing seemed to indicate that they were from a nomadic group rather than belonging to the Egyptians, Midianites, or members of a close by camp, quickly approached the young woman.

"Can I help you?" Tzipporah questioned, putting down the bucket of water she had just drawn from the well. It was a scorching day and she had rather naively figured that they were thirsty.

Bewilderment soon flooded into her desert-sand-brown and dried-sunflower gold eyes as a large hand seized hold of her upper arm and she was forcefully drawn back against one of the muscular figures. Clearly the men did not understand the general concepts of personal space and of not touching other people's property.

"MOSES!!!!" She frantically shouted, her heart nearly leaping out of her chest as the same man's other arm coiled tightly around her middle. Having been the victim of a kidnapping before, Tzipporah was not amused. She swung her legs and arms, struggling violently against the hold. "LET GO OF ME!" Her voice firmly demanded. Yet, the arms did not release her. 

"MOOOOSSSEEESSS!!!" Tzipporah screamed again, although louder this time.

The other man started to make loud noises, frightening the flock of sheep into a chaotic frenzy of motion. Wooly four legged creatures hurriedly began to break apart from their huddled masses and bolted off in every which direction. They were "bahhhhing" for protection that could not come, so long as Tzipporah was being held against her will. The other man roamed in and out of the startled numbers, looking for a few sheep to claim as their prizes.

Tzipporah's heart broke for her flock and she thrashed about as wildly as possible in an effort to regain her freedom. Until suddenly, a sharp pinching sensation found its way into the soft flesh covering her diaphragm and her gaze dropped to observe the tip of a knife jabbing into her skin. Further inspection brought fear etching into every coil and fleck of Tzipporah's eyes. The weapon was pointed upwards, at an angle that would allow the blade to almost effortlessly slip beneath her ribcage and into her lung. If she endeavor to regain control from the man, the blade would most certainly deliver a fatal blow. Begrudgingly she ceased her efforts, knowing that Moses would prefer her giving the hunger-driven thieves what they came for, rather than losing her life for something that can, in time, be replaced. That didn't mean that Jethro's eldest daughter had to like the situation.

Once a few fattened sheep had been slaughtered and slung over his shoulders, the leader turned to the man holding Tzipporah. His dark-eyes flashed with a malevolent twinkle as he cruelly snarled, "get rid of her and meet me in our designated spot. She'll only be trouble. Oh... and this time finish the job." 

The man began to drive the blade upwards slowly, his hands trembling so heavily that he was barely able to get it to sink passed another centimeter of her flesh. Tzipporah was trembling herself, trapped uncomfortably between the stranger's solid chest and the intrusive blade. Her eyes squeeze shut, expecting the fatal blow to come..... but it didn't. When she realized that he was unable to do the job quickly, her eyes opened. 

Using his moment of feeble hesitation, Tzipporah attempted to rip the blade away from her figure and out of his hands. No, it wouldn't change the fact that there was a slightly deep and bleeding quarter-sized gash in her skin from the blade, but it could earn her the upper-hand in the fight. The razor-like blade met resistance, which she came to understand was his flesh before it fell from the thieve's grasp. With an indignant and livid huff he quickly dragged her with him to the well. Tzipporah kicked up her calloused feet against the coarse stone in a frantic manner. "No..... no....p....please....!!!" She breathlessly entreated.

"Orders..." was the only thing he dutifully but bluntly muttered, before moving his good arm up and under her slender frame. Using her own efforts against her, he successfully sent Tzipporah crashing into the pool below. A loud splash denoted her defeat as the man hurriedly picked up the knife and fled.

"MOOOOSSSSEEEEESSSSSSS!!! MOOOOOOSSSEEEESSSS, HEEEELLLLLPPPP !!!!" She shrieked in desperation, panic seeping its way into every pore as she strove to keep her head above the surface. The shrill sound of her voice reverberated off of the stone walls that surrounded her. Tzipporah couldn't swim, a fact the thieves were possibly ignorant of. Making her plight all the worse, the well was filled with a lot more water than usual; thanks to a rare barrage of storms that had swept in.

She floundered and struggled, till her limbs felt completely and utterly numb. It wasn't long before she was overwhelmed and she slid under the cool shimmering pool. Even her relentlessly persistent and fierce fighting nature couldn't save her when the water soaked into the fabric of her dress weighing her down. Worse still, the weighty fabric caught upon something and it held her head below the lapping self-created tide. Every shattered inhale was forcing water in. Starving lungs heaved violently against the undesired liquid barrier standing between them and the air they craved.

Funny, how a resource that the desert desperately lacked, could end up being the very thing to snatch the life from Tzipporah's body. She was going to die........ and that terrible thought was undeniably branded upon her mind. More so- she was going to die without getting to tell Moses once again how much she loved him. In this, there was a sense of great mortification and remorse.

Just as she had resigned herself to the fact that these were her final moments, a pair of familiar hands clasped onto her slender figure tightly. Several harsh yanks on the fabric and her head was brought back to reclaim its place above the water's surface. Sopping ebony strands clung in thick noodle-like clumps to her face, neck, chest, and shoulders. Tzipporah's skin was almost as cold as ice.... despite the unbearable noon sun beating harshly down upon the land. The usual deep olive-tone of her skin now held a ghostly paler. Ears were clogged with water, amplifying the weak twittering thumps of her heart, that miraculously hadn't stopped after she had been completely submerged for several minutes. Or maybe it only felt like several minutes. She could not tell.

Perhaps, when Tzipporah regained her presence-of-mind she'd thank Moses for ducking her head into the sheeps' trough and keeping it there for a few minutes until she could regain the upper hand and toss his head into the same trough. There was truly no malice to the game.... and having engaged in it, it just might have helped keep her alive long enough to feel the hope of rescue return.

Water poured from her opened mouth and from her nose. Her quivering lips, which were a disconcerting shade of the faintest pale-blue, attempted to grant an utterance passage, but her lungs burned too violently for a sound other than a terrible rasping and gargling noise to emerge. Her body convulsed with horrendous force as she tried to inhale the air she needed, only to choke on the water still stubbornly lodged in her throat and lungs.

From between long, dark halos of lashes beaded with silvery orbs, heavy-lidded eyes flickered open fearfully only to lock upon Moses's darker hues before painfully screwing shut again. Her exhausted and thundering head lulled back against Moses's sturdier figure for support, lest she be plunged back into the stiflingly suffocating depths. The rest of her limp figure hung around Moses's hold as though, she were a lifeless tapestry and not at all a human. He was the only thing standing between her and certain death. 

Her beloved's words, however distant and garbled they sounded, filled her mind and encouraged her to cling to dear life.

"I won't let you die. Not like this!"

Cold fingers unsteadily folded around the warmth of his larger hand, as if to declare that she wasn't giving up yet. But Tzipporah was suffocating on the inside. Her airways were blocked, her lungs were singeing with every attempted breath. The young woman could feel her once sharp surroundings, fading into the realms of darkness, like the last hints of sunshine which are snuffed out by the same winds that drag the veil of night over the land.


End file.
